Tuesday, July 30, 2013

I love growing tomatoes, eating tomatoes and talking about tomatoes! I thought since I am obsessed with tomatoes that I would start spotlighting a different tomato I am growing every Tuesday on my blog. This weeks tomato spotlight will be about the first tomato that produced for me this year and that is "Bloody Butcher".

Bloody Butcher

It is an early producing open pollinated tomato that is indeterminate with potato leaves. It produces 4oz. dark red tomatoes in abundance. I have been picking at least one a day. The flavor is a traditional tomato flavor and is very juicy when fully ripe. I enjoy eating it fresh off the vine and I also have read that it is good for canning. It matures in 55 days and is suppose to perform well in cooler areas. I am pleased with this variety and will probably plant it again in the future. My seed source for this variety was Burpee. Have you ever grown Bloody Butcher, if so what was your experience?

Harvests are picking up down at my garden plots. My tomatoes are starting to ripen, even the BIG ones! Zucchini and summer squash are still producing, but the plants are starting to look pretty bad. I will be pulling them out and replanting them this week. I just received my Costata Romanesco zucchini seeds from Baker Creek and I can't wait to try them. Are any of you doing a second crop of zucchini and summer squash? I was able to plant my broccoli, cabbage and brussels sprouts last night. I am planning on also planting cauliflower, lettuce, carrots, beets, Swiss chard, Chinese cabbage and Pak Choi. The trick will be finding the room with all my summer crops still growing. Besides harvesting crops this week I also attended a canning class. It was a lot of fun and very informative. This will be my first year canning and I can't wait to try it. The instructor was a fellow blogger, Robin from The Gardener of Eden. Here are some harvest pictures from this past week.

These zucchini are all from the same plant. There must have been some cross

pollination going on in my garden.

This is my tomato harvest from Monday night. I had some splitting from the rain on Sunday.

These were harvested on Saturday. My tomatoes are really starting to ripen on a regular basis. Some of my tomatoes are really large this year. I am very happy so far

with my tomato production this year.

These are bitter melons I am growing for fun this year. I have never grown them or tasted them so we shall see. They have very vigorous vines and are really productive. I will post later about how they taste and what I made with them. They are suppose to be very healthy for you.

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Thanks for stopping by and checking out what I am harvesting in my garden. Stop over at Daphne's Dandelions to check out other Harvest Monday posts. ﻿

Monday, July 22, 2013

With the heat and humidity this past week I did not spend much time down at my community garden. I would go down to water and harvest that's about it. It figures I had three days off last week from work and I couldn't even spend it at my garden. I did put some time in today, it was not as humid today. As far as my harvesting goes I can't complain. I have started harvesting more tomatoes, mostly cherry and small tomatoes. I was able to harvest one larger tomato called "Basinga".

Basinga Tomato

These are some of the cherry and small tomatoes I have been harvesting. The cherry tomatoes are Green Grape, Red Pear and Chocolate Cherry. The small size tomatoes are Bloody Butcher and Black Zebra (which are not fully ripe).

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I also harvested the rest of my beets and my first Cubanelle peppers.

More Purple Beauty peppers, Crystal Apple cucumber and my first Listada eggplant. The Crystal Apple cucumber was very bitter and had a lot of seeds eventhough it is small.

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I finally harvested my potatoes that I had growing in plastic tubs. They are Kennebec and Masquerade potatoes.

Friday, July 19, 2013

Right about this time every year my garden is producing zucchini on a daily basis. Some gardeners get sick and tired of all the zucchini and don't know what to do with it all. I like to grow zucchini and summer squash, to me they are one in the same. I happen to love zucchini and I am always looking for new ways to cook with it. There are so many great things you can do with zucchini. Here are some ways that I use the zucchini from my garden.

The other night I made a Chocolate Zucchini Cake. It was delicious and easy to make!

Last year I made these Zucchini Tots and they were amazing. They are a great little treat and a good way to use up some of your zucchini. I plan on making them again this year, maybe I will make some today! The recipe is very easy, it only has 5 ingredients plus salt & pepper. I also got this recipe from Pinterest and here is the link for the recipe.

This is the newest recipe I found for using zucchini... Zucchini Lasagna Cupcakes! I can't wait to try them! I think these will be the best cupcakes ever. I would also like to try these using eggplant. I found this recipe on a blog called A'lil Country Sugar.

Monday, July 15, 2013

I am very excited about this weeks Harvest Monday, because I was able to harvest my first TOMATOES!!! Of all my crops in my garden, my tomatoes are my most favorite. The first tomatoes I harvested were from my Bloody Butcher plant. This plant was also the first to develop tomatoes in my garden and second was my German Pink which is still green.

Along with harvesting my first tomatoes, I also harvested my first peppers. The two types I harvested are Flamingo and Purple Beauty, both are sweet bell peppers.

I also harvested some of my onions and all my Elephant Garlic. I planted yellow, red and white onion sets this year. They are a decent size, but wish they were larger. I left some of the smaller ones in the ground to see if they get bigger.

I have been harvesting zucchini and cucumbers almost every other day. They are doing really well so far. The cucumber beetles are doing a number on my cucumber plants, but hopefully they are strong enough to keep producing for me. I have been spraying Neem Oil on some of my plants to fight against bugs and fungus.

Besides harvesting vegetables, I also harvested some herbs. I harvested Curly Parsley, Flat Leaf Parsley and Garden Sweet Basil. I finally tried using my Mom's very old dehydrator and it worked really well.

Thanks for checking out my Harvest Monday post. To see more Harvest Monday posts go to Daphne's Dandelions at daphnesdandelions.blogspot.com

Thursday, July 11, 2013

I am very excited that my blog has reached 1,000 pageviews! When I started my garden blog a couple months ago I never thought I would be this addicted. I am enjoying meeting new gardeners and learning new things. I especially like looking at everyone's garden pictures. So thank you to everyone who has taken the time to check out my blog! Happy Gardening!!!

Monday, July 8, 2013

This is my first time joining in on Harvest Monday which is hosted by Daphne's Dandelions at daphnesdandelions.blogspot.com. Some of my crops are coming to an end while others are just starting. I finished harvesting all my cabbage and had to pull out my heading lettuce because it all started to bolt. I never got a chance to try my red iceberg lettuce. I will try again in the fall. I was able to harvest my first summer squash and all of my carrots. The squash I harvested were Butta, Patty Pan Sunburst, Green Tiger and Zephyr squash. The carrots I planted this spring were from a packet of rainbow carrots, which included Cosmic Purple, Atomic Red, Solar Yellow and Lunar White carrots. I also recently harvested my first beets and turnips. I planted three types of beets this spring, they are Chioggia, Golden and Detroit Dark. This was my first time growing turnips and I planted a variety called Golden Ball.

Yesterday in the heat and humidity I ran down to the garden for a half hour and was able to pick more summer squash and my fist cucumbers. The cucumber varieties I picked were Salt & Pepper, Garden Sweet and Boston Pickling.

From left to right

Green Tiger, Butta & Zephyr Squash

If you would like to check out other Harvest Monday posts stop on over at

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About Me

I have been gardening for 5 years. I have two garden plots at a community garden in Pennsylvania. My passion is tomato gardening. I love trying new varieties every year. I enjoy learning from other gardeners and sharing my gardening experiences and knowledge.